A lot of hand-waving goes on in the emerging field of archaeoacoustics. The pioneers of this field—which made its debut for the general science community Feb. 17 at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Vancouver—are perhaps summoning the spirits who occupied the ritual spaces they study.
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AAAS meeting blogging. Are the enemies of science growing or just getting louder? A microbe field guide? Primate moral outrage over inequality. Those purloined Heartland climate change documents: the surprising villain, the textual analysis, and the education scheme. The first watery exoplanet, misexplained. FTL neutrinos, not so fast. Download the Universe and the future of science ebooks.
In the past seven months, the National Association of Science Writers has awarded an additional five Idea Grants, totaling $67,000, bringing the total awarded since the grant program's inception one year ago this month to almost $140,000. Funding is provided by income from the Authors Coalition, and the grants are intended to help science writers in their professional lives or benefit the field of science writing.
In the circles in which we run we have seen the results of polls that seek to tease out how the public perceives science and scientists. For this edition of Scholarly Pursuits, we are taking a look at one of these polls as well as exploring some recent papers that seek to elucidate how and why people perceive science in certain ways. From the Winter 2011-12 ScienceWriters.
For decades, tobacco industries and lax standards of societal health kept the true cost of smoking hidden from the public. Today, the consequences of burning coal for energy are emerging—and the lessons could have a much faster impact, according to researchers speaking Feb. 19 at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Vancouver.
European representatives from nuclear power, tobacco and genetically modified organism (GMO) industries pleaded for more transparency and public engagement from global policy makers on Feb. 18 at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Vancouver.
Science has invested heavily in assessing and predicting the potential manifestations of climate change, but the newest frontier in climate science may emerge from the collective experiences of those people most affected by a changing world.
Peer review has long been the standard for quality science, but recent concerns about fraud among authors, bias among reviewers, and possible hindrance of scientific progress has led some to question the effectiveness of a process that relies on anonymous experts and occurs behind closed doors.
We need more food, and we need it fast. But how do we continue to produce enough food for a burgeoning population and at the same time make sure we’re protecting Earth’s limited natural resources and using them wisely? Scientists and economists tackled that question Feb. 18 at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Vancouver.